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Today I read about Microsoft’s new TV ad with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, which was aired for the first time during yesterday’s National Football League broadcast. I then went online looking for it and, as expected, quickly found it on YouTube:
Bloomberg reports that the ad campaign will cost Microsoft a total of $300 million. The campaign has been developed by Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, an ad agency that has done work for Burger King and Coke before.
The big question is: What is this ad about? Sure, the Windows logo can be seen for almost one second at the end of the 90-second spot. Bill and Jerry didn’t talk a lot about it, though, did they? I’m sure Microsoft and CPB want the spot to work as a teaser trailer to get people talk about it or think about the great things MSFT will (possibly) put on the market in the future. For me, the ad just did not work. If the purpose has been to make Windows look more sexy and appealing to the Apple-loving customers, I’m sure it didn’t work for the target group, either.
So, is Microsoft wasting $300 million? Think of the truckloads of money MSFT could have made or the millions of targeted visitors the company would have driven to its websites via direct navigation traffic, if only they had chosen to invest the $300M in domain names. It’s out of the question that they’re getting a lot of exposure in return for their massive ad spending. Blogs and other media are busy discussing the TV spot already (look at me, here I am writing about it). But I still think the money has sort of gone to waste, because people do not know what the ad is about and I doubt it will help Microsoft fight against Apple’s newly-found sex appeal.
Buy domains. Buy a search engine. Buy an online advertising company. But don’t throw the money away to get Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld into a shoe store together. Looks to me like Microsoft has not been the master of its domain so far.
But to be fair, the campaign has only started yesterday. Maybe we will be seeing something innovative from Microsoft and its ad agency, after all. Fingers crossed!
300 million,
Just think of all the good names you can buy with that,
that would almost buy you Business.com
300 $1,000,000 names
What a waste.
They can afford to make mistakes, and i am not a fan of commercial too. Falls flat. But …. its branding, not immediate results, will see how it turns out.
Art, you’re right about that, of course. So far I’m not getting their new marketing campaign, but it’s quite possible their upcoming ads will shed more light on this (hopefully).
Still, $300 million is A LOT of money, especially when taking a big risk with an ad like that - even for an industry giant like Microsoft. Had the commercial been better I’d probably be thinking differently…
How else do you guys expect Microsoft to acquire more customers and/or maintain their “image” (Bill Gates)?
The reality is, they’re NOT going to sell people on Windows or their other product lines through buying traffic from search engines, or owning targeted domain names. They’re big business trying to maintain their own corporate identity - they don’t need domain names.
They’re trying to REACH to potential consumers and retain existing customers through psychologically influential mediums such as television, which is highly effective for mind share.
I’m personally a hardcore Apple user, however, I think it is refreshing and pretty cool to be able to see Bill Gates interacting with Jerry Seinfeld for 1 minute (even if Jerry’s humor in this commercial IS dry).
My 2 cents.
By the way, I forgot to mention in my last comment, I believe that this commercial is paving the road for their grand launch of Microsoft Surface technology (www.Surface.com) - which, by the way, they obviously had the intelligence to see the domain name’s value in their marketing and branding efforts.
Thanks for your comments, Merlin.
I hadn’t thought about Surface, but that’s quite possible, yes. Microsoft Surface and the Touch Wall are really something I’m looking forward to because it’s finally something new from Microsoft.
Regarding the commercial and Microsoft’s ad spendings, don’t get me wrong, I haven’t been thinking domain names only. I was simply thinking how many different things you could have done with that kind of money. I’m sure everybody here knows that a large corporation like MSFT must spend money on TV marketing and branding. But having seen the first commercial I only hope the campaign’s future commercials will be better, because otherwise I keep at thinking the money has not been spent wisely.
I liked the funny “Last Day at Microsoft” Bill Gates video:
Video: Bill Gates' Last Day - CES Clip
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=be9075bb-df0a-41c9-8d86-7ded46627e26
This time around the make fun of Bill Gates strategy just didn’t work for me.
Yes, people are discussing the ad…just as people discussed Hurricane Katrina. If the ad is to be redeemed by subsequent ads, they’d better be damned good.
The first ad makes me question Bill Gates’ sanity. Actually, I’ve questioned his sanity for years; the ad just raises the stakes - Bill Gates is a certifiable KOOK.
Learn more about the world’s richest fruit cake via my “knol” Bill Gates: A Critical Biography.